On January 12, 2010, several hours before a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Port-au-Prince, gunmen shot and killed Sociology Professor Jean Anil Louis-Juste as he was leaving the grounds of his department at the State University of Haiti. A tireless revolutionary and engaged academic, Louis-Juste had recently received multiple death threats for his role in organizing a series of university student demonstrations that sparked wildcat strikes at one of Port-au-Prince's largest textile assembly plants. By reflecting on Louis-Juste's political and intellectual development, this article seeks to draw attention to the ways in which those on the Haitian left have sought to contend with the political repression and economic marginalization that have hindered the promise of the 1986 popular uprising against Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier.